Tampa Bay Lightning centre Carter Verhaeghe of Toronto, Ontario recorded his first National Hockey League hat trick on Tuesday. The 24 year-old rookie scored thrice as the Lightning hammered the Vancouver Canucks 9-2 at the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida.
Verhaeghe scored his first goal of the game at 17:06 of the second period from Brayden Point of Calgary, Alberta and Yanni Gourde of Saint-Narcisse, Quebec, which made the score 4-2 Lightning at the time. Verhaeghe’s second goal came at 12:43 of the third period from Mitchell Stephens of Peterborough, Ontario which put the Lightning up 8-2. Verhaeghe’s hat trick then came with 1:51 left in the game from Nikita Kucherov and Mikhail Sergachev, which put the Lightning up 9-2.
On the season, Verhaeghe now has five goals and four assists for nine points in 29 games. He is a -2 with six penalty minutes, one power play point, 40 shots on goal, 14 faceoff wins, two blocked shots, 12 hits, 10 takeaways and seven giveaways.
The Lightning win streak now is at eight games, the longest in the NHL. In fact, heading into the game, the Canucks also had a winning streak of seven games. With the win, the Lightning are in second place in the Atlantic Division with a record of 25 wins, 13 regulation losses and four losses in extra time for 54 points.
